Mayor arrested for allegedly defrauding city to pay for accident he caused

Tokushima – The mayor of Awa, Tokushima Prefecture, and two others were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fraudulently obtaining ¥3.5 million ($22,000) by inflating the cost of city construction work in an apparent bid to procure repair funds for a traffic accident the mayor had caused.

Tokushima Prefectural Police arrested Mayor Hisato Machida, 69, Awa official Kenichi Matsuda, 42, and company employee Minoru Dohi, 53. 

Awa Mayor Hisato Machida | AWA MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT WEBSITE / VIA JIJI

While driving while off duty in September 2023, Machida crashed into the concrete-block wall of a house in the prefecture, NHK reported. He was required to pay ¥3.5 million in repair costs, according to police.

The three conspired to inflate the costs of a contract the Awa government signed with a private company in May 2024 to include those repair costs, police said.

Police believe Machida instructed Matsuda to inflate the replacement work costs, then through Dohi, he paid the repair costs for the wall he crashed into, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

The contract with the city involved work to replace equipment related to a cable network, and the city paid the private company a total of ¥74.25 million, including the ¥3.5 million the trio is suspected of fraudulently obtaining. Dohi worked for the company, the Asahi reported.

Machida joined the former Awa town government in 1976 before the town merged with other municipalities to form the current city of Awa. He later served as finance division chief and deputy mayor before being elected mayor for the first time in 2023.